Sadiq Khan plans on banning fracking in London

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan plans on banning fracking in the UK capital.

Khan is recommending that councils deny any appraisals or production of shale gas using fracking, stating that the method is “harmful” and a risk to public health.

Fracking is the process of drilling down into the earth before water, sand and chemicals are injected into the rock at high pressure to release the gas inside.

The process can expose people to harmful particles of respirable silica dust, which can cause chronic lung damage, and pollutants which can worsen neurological problems, Khan said.

London should instead focus on “clean and renewable forms of energy”.

Fracking in process at the Bakken Formation in North Dakota, USA. Photo by Joshua Doubek (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia CommonsThe mayor’s proposals will be outlined in his draft London Plan – set to be published later this week.

Khan said:

“There is absolutely no place for fracking in London and I remain firm in my belief that any such application must be refused.

“The harmful, negative impact of the use of fossil fuels on the environment and on the air we breathe is well known. We must instead focus our resources on developing technologies for the efficient extraction of clean, renewable forms of energy, rather than coming up with more ever innovative ways to keeping burning fossil fuels.”

Last month fracking was effectively banned in Scotland. The practice is also banned in France, the Netherlands, Germany and Bulgaria.